Released: February 21, 2011
Lincoln, Neb. - University Theatre, the academic production program at the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film, opens its spring semester with Iphigenia 2.0, based on the play "Iphigenia in Aulis" by Euripides, set in today's society by playwright Charles L. Mee. Shannon Cameron directs this production in partial fulfillment of her Master of Fine Arts in Directing for Stage and Screen. Performances are February 24, 25, 26 and March 2, 3, 4, 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Howell Theatre, first floor of the Temple Building, 12th & R Streets.
Tickets are $16, $14 faculty/staff and senior citizens, and $10 for students with ID. Tickets are available from the Lied Center Ticket Office, 301 N. 12th street or at 402-472-4747 or 800-432-3231 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Friday or one hour prior to each performance. Tickets are also available on line at unltheatretickets.com.
Iphigenia, a beautiful heiress from the House of Atreus who is about to be married, must deal not only with an overbearing mother, Clytemnestra, but a father, Agamemnon, who plans to kill her. Iphigenia is played by Jenny Holm, with Julie Soroko as Clytemnestra and Nick Wolf as Agamemnon.
The play opens with Agamemnon musing about the risks of empire: "Sometimes they are brought to ruin by no more than the belief that something must be done when in truth doing nothing would have been the better course." Filled with current political parallels, playwright Mee describes it as, "a great imperial power steps into the world to go to war â taking an action so wrong that it sets the empire on the road to complete self-destruction. Proving, as Agamemnon himself says on the brink of the Trojan War, 'we see from the histories of empires that none will last forever and all are brought down finally not by others but by themselves.'"
In Mee's play, the soldiers, however, take the power from the politicians vowing not to fight until Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia. When Clytemnestra discovers that her daughter is not being sent to Aulis to marry Achilles, but to be murdered, she is horrified and takes action. Agamemnon himself becomes increasingly anguished as he now has to watch the repercussions of his actions.
Achilles is played by Jordan Deffenbaugh and the soldiers are Logan Gee, Will Bennett, Gary Henderson and Cale Yates. Other cast members are Khalisha Casey, Devon Schovanec, Christina Leonard and Ayana Atiba Sahar.
The production is designed by Corrie Benton (scenic), Julie Douglass (costumes), Harrison Hohnholt (lighting), Logan Caldwell (sound), and Lucas Sevedge (projections).